AP embedding skills to boost electronics manufacturing sector

Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh government's 360-degree holistic approach towards electronics manufacturing sector has turned out to be fruitful in bringing more companies. The State has the world's largest original equipment manufacturer, Foxconn, and the world's largest original design manufacturer, Wintech.

Nanda Kishore Reddy, Group CEO of AP Electronics and Information Technology Agency (APEITA) and MD of AP Technology Services (APTS), shared this while explaining the advantages of manufacturing electronic components in the State during a panel discussion on "AP - Embedding Bharat's Code in the global circuit' at Bizz Buzz Business Conclave (BBBC) here on Friday.

He further said: "Besides geographical and infrastructural advantages, AP offers several benefits to the electronics manufacturing sector. The State ranked first in ease of doing business for three years in a row. The single window clearances for industries and skilling initiatives have resulted in attracting a bunch of manufacturing units to the State."

AP has four electronics manufacturing clusters (EMCs) - EMC 1 and 2 at Tirupati, EMC in Sri City and YSR EMC at Kopparthi, near Kadapa. The state has six major ports and six airports, out of which three are international. These advantages will bring down the logistic costs drastically for the companies in AP when compared to any other State in India, Reddy informed. He said, "till now, five electronics manufacturing companies have committed to invest about Rs 600 crore at Kopparthi EMC and create employment to around 7,000 persons. From June 2022, some of these companies will start their operations. The State government provides 100 per cent incentive through the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, dovetailing into the Centre's PLI scheme."

The State government is trying to establish electronic manufacturing infrastructures from scratch. The government's skilling programmes at village level helped youth to get jobs in the assembling units of the EMC. AP has a Japan cluster, a Korean and Taiwan cluster.

Stressing on domestic manufacturing, Nanda Kishore said: "Electronic components manufacturing is a cut-throat competition between countries, not States. India has to compete with the giants like Taiwan and Korea. The electronic components manufacturing in the country is cheaper than importing from foreign countries."

Another panel speaker during the same session, Arvind Consultancy CEO Sanjeev said that the electronic manufacturing market was pegged at $120 billion last year. As per the Ministry of Electronics and IT report, it will grow by $300 billion by 2025. The ESDM (Electronics System Design and Manufacturing) will be going to be $400 billion by 2026. He said this sector is critical, and we need to be Atmanirbhar for all the power grid technologies.

There is great need to develop local fabless industry. During the same session, Sanjay Nekkanti, Co-Founder of Druva Aerospace, spoke about how AP can play a vital role in attracting investment and talent. He said that several global space tech companies may set up their base in and around Sriharikota in AP. He started building satellites when he was 19-year-old. After 15 years, he is running India's first space technology startup.

He requested AP to go one step forward and build an infrastructure that brings a lot of foreign companies and domestic startups under one roof. He urged to look at space as the vertical to grow the business.

Poornima Shenoy, CEO of Hummingbird Advisors, shared about her journey from 2005, when she was the President of Indian Semi-conductor Association. Referring to the AP State Electronic Policy, she said that the State needs three 'S' – Skills, Social Infrastructure and Startups. She stressed on trained manpower to make any business successful.

As a moderator of the panel discussion, Hitech Magnetics & Electronics Pvt Ltd MD Uma Reddy shared her views on the electronic sector growth for three and a half decades. "We have covered the journey from analogue to digital and now more with artificial intelligence and machine learning. In 2020, electronic manufacturing sector stood at $425 billion. Electronic manufacturing policies cover four areas: R&D, electronic manufacturing, ecosystem of doing business and component manufacturing."